Is sleep really important? Only an insomniac person would be the one to ask this question. Let’s be frank, who doesn’t love to sleep?
Recent data and statistics show that 50-70 million US adults have a sleep disorder or find trouble catching sleep for more than 6-7 hours.
There are times when I thank God for making it possible to sleep. I am sure you will agree with me on this.
Someone, somewhere, sometimes said that there are only two things in the world which give any human being the utmost pleasure – going to sleep after a tiring day & getting to release excretory motions after you have had to hold it for a long time.
Not discussing the latter will be a wise choice here, but let’s talk about the first one I mentioned. By the end of this article, I am sure you will have enough insights into good quality sleep.
Let us first understand what sleep is and how it is important
We cannot expect to understand good quality sleep without exploring what sleep is in the first place. In simple terms, it is a body’s mechanism to rejuvenate. Like healthy food, exercise, and healthy thinking, Good Sleep is a crucial factor towards a Healthy Life. If you think wisely, it does not cost a lot to have all of these if you make the right choices.
Studies have shown that lack of sleep or inability to sleep correctly have been the root causes of many ailments. The body only functions at its optimum if you give it good fuel, good lubrication, and good rest. Scientists have still not been able to understand why sleep is so detrimental to the body’s functioning. If our body was just a machine, it should have run non-stop as long as it was fed with good fuel, but that is not the case.
Sleep is the process in which the brain can actively remove toxins that have built up while you are awake. The brain cannot do so while you are awake as it has to pay attention to other roles. Look at sleep as housekeeping for your brain. The more toxins get accumulated, the more you feel sleepy sooner or later. Sleep is no doubt essential, but don’t let this confuse your mind into looking at sleep as a leisure activity. The moment sleep becomes a leisure activity, and it will start causing more troubles than you ever imagined.
This brings us to our question – How to get a good quality sleep?
This brings us to our question – How to get a good quality sleep?
To understand the answer to this question, we first need to know what good quality sleep is. If you notice that you aren’t able to get up from your bed every morning without snoozing the alarm, and even when you do wake up, there isn’t the slightest feeling of freshness in you, then you are having poor quality sleep. It doesn’t matter the amount of time you sleep; what matters is how you sleep. A good quality sleep makes it possible to get up in sync with your body clock and with an everlasting freshness in you every morning.
When you consider sleep as an escape from your problems, it is natural that your body will trigger sleep anytime and whenever you face a challenge. Life is full of challenges, and people who love to sleep through it have found a way to escape their challenges. The moment you feel you are getting sleepy at random times of the day, you should know that your sleep is taking over your conscience. Even though such sleep feels very demanding, it will only lead to poor quality sleep and keep you craving more sleep.
Ernest Hemingway was once quoted,
“I love sleep. My life has the tendency to fall apart when I’m awake, you know?”
The key towards getting good quality sleep is through Meditation!
Somebody once asked, “Is it wise to sleep while meditating, or meditate while sleeping?” In my opinion, not mixing up meditation and sleep is the wise thing to do. To understand how you can use meditation to improve your sleep quality, we need to understand that meditation is not something you do but something you become. Meditation is a state of mind and not merely an action in simple language. The key is to embrace the quality of being meditative in such a way that you stay meditative even when you are asleep.
Let us reflect on the slight difference between resting and sleeping. To anyone’s understanding, resting is conscious, whereas sleep is when you are not.
What if I told you Rest and Sleep are both the same? Surprised right? Studies have proven that your body can go to sleep even in a state of total consciousness. Sleeping cannot be justified if your body is physically rested but mentally in turmoil. In a state of consciousness, it is simple to be in a state of rest physically, and the challenging part is to train your body to be in a state of rest mentally even when you are conscious. The moment you can achieve mental rest is when your body will stop wanting to escape into its zone of sleep to avoid mental stress, and you will enjoy the time you are asleep and awake.
